Thursday, September 24, 2009

By now I'm sure everyone knows about Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort's plan to give away their own edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, complete with their own 50-page introduction packed with contemptible creotard lies, at 50 college campuses this November. UT-Austin is one of those campuses, and you can bet I'll be there to get my copy! I heartily encourage Atheist Longhorns and literally everyone from the university's Biology department to snap up copies as well, until they run out. And of course, make sure the uneducated drones giving away the book's are appropriately humiliated and schooled. They evidently haven't considered the likely consequences of showing up in an environment where people are, by and large, well educated, and trying to spread their ignorant twaddle. Let's ensure they leave with a full understanding of those consequences.

Jim Emerson's Scanners blog (Jim edits rogerebert.com, and both he and Ebert are outspoken science supporters) offers a very funny takedown of Kirk and Ray's idiocy, and I think it's a good thing that this whole exercise receives as much derision in advance of the actual event as possible. What an awesome thing it would be if those dispatched to give away these books encountered, at all 50 universities (and I've read reports there may be more than 100 universities by now), a horde of fearless and outspoken experts in science who calmly shoot down their foolishness and lies, like shooting clay pigeons out of the sky. This ought to be an event they live to regret.

I'd like to get a group together to snach up as many copies as possible as well......does anyone have a link that would show me if they are coming to my university? I am a student at Texas A&M University, here in College Station, Texas.

Mother of Zeus! I couldn't even watch the whole video, but the article was great. It strikes me (and the irony seems to have escaped the bananamen) that the very reason they're going to the ONE PLACE where their books are the least likely to be accepted/read/believed (Universities largely stocked with critical thinkers or those learning the process) is that the heart of the whole problem with atheists is that the poor Gideons can't even give out bibles in public schools! Which is exactly where these nutbars can't give out these bastardized copies of the book Cameron doesn't even know the title of! (var: Origin of Species, The Origin of Species, On the Origin of Species, all in the first 2 minutes)

I'm very curious about one thing. I've read this book, and enjoyed very much learning from it, but I know nothing about Darwin's life. Did he have children, grandchildren, etc? Are there descendants alive today and do they have any rights at all to squelch something horrifying like this if the book is in the public domain? I would suspect that there is something Darwin's descendants could do if there is a line of ownership or something down the years. I'm not familiar with British or American copyright law in cases like this, but who better to stop these people, legally?

Even if it was legal, though, I can already here the "Persecution of Christians!" wailings, and accusations of stifling free speech. Perhaps the latter would be true if the book was squelched? That's what I'm asking.

I don't know if you are suggesting that we grab copies just to make them run out, but I think I would have a moral reservation, if that were the case.

I suspect that many of them would gladly give you a copy if you tell them "I am an atheist, and I would like a copy of your book" (and you actually read it), but, if you are taking multiple copies of their book, or misrepresenting yourself to prevent the books from being given to others, then isn't that just another way of shouting them down?

I am really fed up of those accusations about Darwin being responsible for Nazism. That is downright slander. And I always find ironic that the fundies mention his racism and mysoginy. As if most religious people of that time, or indeed today, were not guilty of the same crime.

I was going to leave a comment about Ray Comforts persecution complex, until I saw the post about using box cutters and a recycling bin. That is a great idea, Although I should think that the addition of a shredder be used. If people leave us those books, we can re-hand them out as it was originally intended.Or maybe we can snap them all up before the religious students get there. I'm also guessing that there will be a per person book limit.

I think Lukeprog at commonsenseatheism (he's an atheist) had the right response to this.What if Ray Comfort was an atheist and instead of writing a foreword to the Origin of Species , he wrote a foreword to the bible , accusing the bible of influencing the Nazis?I would think you would say Christians trying to destroy his book are bad.

No I wouldn't. If you're going to give away free books, people are free to do anything with their copy including destroy it. If I were doing that as an atheist, I would expect somebody to try that. That's exactly why I wouldn't bother.

I can't wait for Comfort to give free books of Galileo with comment explaining that he was all wrong and that the Earth is as the Bible described it: at the center of the universe, flat covered by a veil that is the sky.

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PLEASE NOTE: The Atheist Experience has moved to a new location, and this blog is now closed to comments. To participate in future discussions, please visit http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/axp.The Atheist Experience is a weekly live call-in television show sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin. This independently-run blog (not sponsored by the ACA) features contributions from current and former hosts and co-hosts of the show.